2018高考英语一轮复习 Unit 2 English around the world单元检测卷 新人教版必修1.doc

Unit 2 English around the world Ⅱ.阅读理解 At a recent visit to the beautiful Keukenhof flower gardens in Holland, I learned about the practice of topping. As flowers grow, sometimes the growers cut off the tops of the flowers, which they believe causes the plants to invest more energy into flower growth and less into seed production. The expected result is flower buds that will produce higher quality flowers. This is the same with personal growth. Sometimes when we produce first results in a certain area, it can be helpful to cut them off and throw them away. This can free up energy for a stronger attempt elsewhere instead of settling into the comfort zone of satisfaction with the old results. After running my computer game business for 10 years and generating satisfying results with it, I decided to drop it and leave that field behind. This freed up my energy to focus on my personal development in writing and speaking. If Id kept running the old business, this would have meant less energy to invest in my new path. It can be difficult to choose the topping approach because youre taking something thats already reasonably satisfying and cutting it out of your life, in the hopes that something even better will grow in its place. Do you want to settle where you are right now? If so, then topping is unnecessary. But if youd like to do better and believe you have a good shot at improvement, just like the flower growers at Keukenhof, then topping is a sensible practice. To free up time and energy for future growth in new directions, you have to drop the merely satisfactory. This gives you a shot at the truly beautiful. Stepping outside of your comfort zone is by definition an uncomfortable experience, but it can yield a lot more growth than staying put. Though dropping satisfaction to go for more growth is not an easy path to follow, I do find it to be the more beautiful path. 1.By using metaphor, the author means that the tops of flowers are . A.personal growth B.his